Solving the Problem of Elder Abuse in Alabama
Elder abuse is a fast-growing problem in Birmingham, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and surrounding locations. As the population ages and more people turn to nursing home care, there is a greater potential for abuse and neglect situations to develop.
A nursing home abuse lawyer knows many seniors cannot speak up about the abuse they are experiencing because of their medical conditions. Other seniors may be afraid to talk about what is happening or may blame themselves. Evidence suggests that about one-third of the people who suffer elder abuse also experienced a different type of abuse earlier in their lives.
These vulnerable seniors may be conditioned to accept and keep quiet about the abuse they are experiencing. This is a major problem that needs to be solved, as vulnerable seniors deserve to live out their lives with dignity.
Solving the Problem of Elder Abuse
The Huffington Post recently published an in-depth report on the problem of elder abuse, indicating this is everyone’s problem to solve.
While elder abuse can occur when family members provide care, there are different issues when a senior is living in a nursing home.
Caregivers in nursing homes face a lot of the same stresses as family members who provide care. Patients are often combative and even violent, especially when they are suffering from dementia. Staff members are often overworked, have little or no training and are underpaid. Nursing home staff members don’t have the relationship with patients that family caregivers do, so this is an added stressor in these situations.
Both sexual abuse and violence are also big problems in nursing homes, although sexual abuse is rare when seniors are cared for by family members. Sexual and verbal attacks are frequently perpetrated by one nursing home resident against another. Staff members may not be effective at stopping this behavior, which can go on all the time.
Nursing homes tend to get the sickest patients and the ones most in need of care, compounding the problems that staff members face.
A lot of attention is paid to detecting when this abuse is occurring, but the Huffington Post spoke with an incoming president of the John A. Hartford foundation who suggested that preventing abuse in the first place should the top goal, rather than catching it after it happens.
One proposal that could make it easier to stop the abuse from happening is to create multidisciplinary centers with teams of professionals who can recognize signs of abuse or neglect.
More funding for elder abuse research could also be a key to helping to solve the problem. In 2009, federal agencies spent just $11.9 million total for all activities related to elder abuse. By contrast, $649 million was spend in programs to prevent violence against women.
There are few researchers at the National Institute of Health focused on this field and this needs to change in order to effectively tackle an ever more serious problem with abused seniors in nursing facilities.
Victims of Birmingham, AL nursing home abuse should consult with a personal injury lawyer at Shuttleswoth Lasseter, LLC. Call 866-583-1885 today. Serving Birmingham, suburbs of Homewood, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills and surrounding locations.Â
